Naomi Punk

When the Olympia, Washington group Naomi Punk came through Madison after the release of their first album, 2012's The Feeling, they were playing what must have been one of the final shows at the Project Lodge before Good Style Shop moved into the East Johnson Street spot. It was a swelteringly hot night, and particularly stifling inside the Project Lodge. Most of the crowd stayed outside during Naomi Punk's set—they were there because it was also the last show for Madison locals Giant People (whose members now play in bands including Fire Heads and Proud Parents). The small handful of us who stayed inside were bathed in a wall of fuzzy, swirling grunge and almost hypnotic vocals. I mean bathed in a literal sense—it was so humid it was as if the sound was being absorbed into the air. The Feeling had an entrancing quality; Naomi Punk's third full-length release, this year's Yellow, which came out earlier this year on Captured Tracks, sees the group experimenting more, but is less absorbing. But some songs, like "My Shadow," break through and feel like an organic progression from the group's earlier sound. —Erica Motz